High-needs autistic students ‘being kept from school’

Teenagers on the autism spectrum are being pushed out of school or kept at home because some institutions will not enroll them without a paid aide, the Barbados Autism Association has said.

But the Ministry of Education Transformation said it was unaware of the cases and has asked the association to provide the names of any students who may be out of school so it can address their situation.

The autism association spokesperson Nadia Simmons said the issue was one of the major challenges facing children with autism.

“I would say the major challenge is the children with high support needs; they are being displaced,” Simmons said. “I know they’re working on it, but very often when a student is given some challenges, they try to move the students or expel the students and then the ministry has to juggle where they would go.”

She told Barbados TODAY: “There are many, I would say more so, teenagers who are home because, while it is unusual to have children not in school, it seems to be fine for autistic youth because there’s no support or there’s no accommodations for them where they were.”

Simmons said she knew of at least two teenagers who were at home and believed there were more.

Some schools would only accept students with an aide, but many parents could not afford to pay another person’s salary, she said.

Responding in a telephone interview, Senior Student Support Officer in the Ministry of Education Transformation Kaye Sargeant said she was not aware of the cases Simmons was referring to and urged the association to provide the names.

“If she knows of that, let us know, because that certainly is not how we operate.”

Sargeant said the ministry had several initiatives to ensure students on the spectrum remained in school.

“There are quite a few initiatives that we have been engaging in to ensure that our students along the spectrum are in fact in school, but you know, if they’re not, let us know. We will address the situation.”

She also pointed out that school-age children are required to attend school “because it’s against the law, first of all, to be out of school”.

Sargeant said the ministry worked with parents and non-governmental organisations, including the Autism Association, to find suitable programmes for students.

She called for greater collaboration between the ministry and the association: “They know parents, and so they should say, ‘listen, how can we work together, what kind of programme is this child best suited for?’

“We really have tried to have meetings with the ministry, and I will work on that again, but we have not been able to collaborate with them to solve that problem. They’re aware of it, I know.”

Schools were “not always equipped to handle a level three autistic individual”, said the association’s public relations officer: “It really should be a collaborative approach because they need to be accommodated.”

The government pays school fees for autistic children attending private special schools and has expanded the number of schools parents can choose from, she said.

She added: “I would be the first to admit that we can’t provide for all children … the numbers are increasing.”

Simmons also identified a shortage of speech and occupational therapists as another major gap, saying it was affecting early intervention.

Her own nine-year-old son was placed on a waiting list for speech therapy at the Albert C. Graham Development Centre when he was three but only received a call this year, she said.

The association did not know exactly how many speech therapists were needed because parents can be on multiple waiting lists, she said, estimating that at least two or three additional speech therapists may be needed, although she said there was no accurate account of the number of spaces required.

Asked whether schools were adequately prepared to accommodate students with autism, Simmons said: “They may not be perfect right now, but they are trying. They see the need, and they’re trying.”

The autism association now has about 320 members, including children and adults on the spectrum and their parents, and that membership had grown sharply over the past three years, said Simmons.

She also highlighted the limited support available for autistic people once they move beyond school-age programmes.

The Derek Smith School and Vocational Centre has a programme that reaches at least age 25, while Lifelong Skills Training Incorporated also provides an option: “There is not much. It’s just now us and the Lifelong Learning programme.”

Simmons spoke as the association launched the Basic Life Skills Programme on Monday, a one-year pilot that Simmons said could eventually be expanded.

She said the association hoped its success would allow it to seek a larger building and provide support for more adults, but funding remains a challenge.

“We get lots of calls and support in April, during Autism Month, but after then, we have to knock a lot harder and send a lot more emails.”

(LG)